A.N.: I decided I wanted to make something a tad special for the 2-week delay, so here is a 4.9K word thing that took me a very, very long time to put together. I'm not sure about the end result, but be advised that there will be a lot of introspection, flashbacks (Naruto isn't the same without them) and talking! Enjoy! Spanish version will update tomorrow :D

Barebones - Arc II: Runaway - Chapter 19: Raise the Tide

If you think you're unlucky for having to hide, you know nothing about those who must stand.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Sakura grumbles for the umpteenth time, pressing a handful of packed snow against her forehead. It has been hours, and she still feels pain with every heartbeat. Her skin is covered by dark, fuming lines that just scream wrong at her eyes, and her whole body feels tense, sore.

On top of that, when she woke up she was met by the most stunned silence from Misho (who somehow managed to break free of his seals) and Maru, who had the biggest shit-eating grin she has ever seen on him.

"Me?" the rat replies, innocently. "I did nothing, ah."

Sakura narrows her eyes and glares at him, pointing an accusatory finger towards the corner of the greenhouse. Misho watches them like it's some sort of ball-passing sport, seemingly trying to melt with the background. He has a reason to be intimidated, to be honest.

"Then what, for Kami's sake, is that." The pinkette throws a sideways glance to the main issue she has with this whole situation. The thing in question pouts, crossing his arms over his chest and appearing dejected. The rat raises his front paws, as if making a mockery shrug.

"You're mean," the rodent comments, a tinge of amusement dripping into his voice. Somewhere, she hears Misho coughing, as if he had just choked on his own spit.

"Excuse me?!" Sakura retorts, groaning when a new flash of blinding pain makes her head spin. She groans lowly, pressing the snow against her forehead. If only she could sink into that cold bliss… "You know more than I do, damn it! Is it that hard to tell me?" the kunoichi grumbles, closing her eyes and sighing.

Too many questions. Even now, the line between reality and illusion is blurry - the cloaked figure standing in the corner of the greenhouse, as casual as he could be, doesn't really help. She doesn't even want to look at him, because everytime she does, there are just so many things that don't make sense.

He's tangible. He emits light - a golden, soft glow, dancing like flames as part of his aura. And both the rat and the frightened kid can see him.

But that does not mean this person should be here.

"That kills the fun," comments Maru, as if this was a trivial matter that merely amuses him. The nerve of the little jerk… She gives him a look that speaks of deep hatred and maybe a tad of murderous intent.

'Something else might die if you keep doing this.' But she doesn't voice it, instead curling up and resting her head on her knees, holding the snow with them. Her hands are now free, so she busies herself with toying around with the soil. There has to be an explanation for all of this. Either it's all an illusion and both the boy's and rat's actions aren't real, or there really is a third person standing in the room with them.

Maru tried to bash into her head the concept of answering the questions she asks, instead of waiting for someone else to do it. He let her rant for hours so she wouldn't feel like she was going crazy. She was reluctant at first, since her ability to tell truth from lie isn't exactly reliable, but he insists that she can't rely on other people for this. Or anything, really.

"You have to do this crap on your own from now on, ah," he repeats, clearly aware of her ruminations. Somehow, he is able to predict the vast majority of her thought processes, chiming in only to reiterate his points. As a companion, he is a dick; as a teacher, he is unyielding and brutal, but he knows. "We need specifics, by the way, I'm not a magician," he adds, finally deciding to be helpful, if only because he must sense that she won't argue further.

"I was meditating, and then suddenly I started hearing things," she recalls, giving in. "Sometimes I hear… bells. They can be small or… deep, something that you would expect in a temple. When I hear them, I know my mind slipping. They're connected to… whatever is wrong with my head," Sakura continues. "They're everywhere. It's like they… cover up other sounds. Like voices. Screams, too…"

It's a coping mechanism. She knows that much. When she was in her mindscape, she recalls the caws of crows turning into bells. The sound of death turning into something much more soothing, but still filled with whispers and tainted words. Underneath lies the cause of her insanity. Yet she has never paid much attention to it, merely trying to fight and block it out.

It never seemed wise to dwell on that and mess with things that distort her perception of reality. Yet something went wrong, because Naruto is standing in the greenhouse with them. There is something real in him - otherwise, she would be the only one able to perceive his presence. Which is, much to her surprise and fear, not the case.

"There was a voice." Her voice quivers ever so slightly, as she gulps and forces herself to keep calm. "I know I've heard it somewhere. It wasn't my inner voice, or one of my friend's. But I'm pretty sure I heard it somewhere. After a while, I couldn't remember who I was, so I panicked. He told me to calm down and… listen. And I started seeing memories."

"There are many kinds of memories, ah."

"...Nice ones. Of when I was training to get better. But I didn't know my name. He showed me, though. The person I worked to be, and why." It feels like she is talking about a stranger. The dissociation with her past self is frightening, the sensation of recalling her own memories foreign. "He gave me a reason. A purpose."

You are thinking of the wrong one.

"Not the voice," she corrects, nearly twitching at the urgency of the thought. It doesn't even sounds like herself. "Sasuke. The reason…" Sakura glances once more at the impossibly clear figure of Naruto, appeared out of nowhere. No, he's very much dead, she knows. "I wasn't chosen by Kami to do this, but by him. When he left me alive, he put a responsibility on my shoulders. "

"So many fancy words, but ah, you haven't explained the reason," comments Maru, breaking her from the daydreamt image of an eclipse. She doesn't even bother to show him her annoyance.

"I'm the last one. If I give up, if I'm gone, his darkness will win. There will be no one to stop it."

The world will sink in chaos. Another era of endless wars.

"I am sure there are plenty of people who will fight to the death against him, ah. The world's full of passionate idiots like that," the rat retorts, huffing at the ominosity. 'Dammit, Maru, can you take anything seriously?'

She raises a hand, still covered with black tendrils and dirt. It feels heavy, numb… but it's hers. Sakura lifts her head, leaning against the wall with a sigh. Her own eyes scan her skin thoroughly, thoughtfully. Yet there is no denial to be had.

"I'm his last bond to humanity. And he hates me for it."

The words come out faster than she can muse over them, and Sakura feels the need to slap a hand over her mouth, as if she had spoken profanity. It feels wrong.

"This darkness isn't mine. It's his. Ningyo - a seal to trap me and force me to submit. If he can't sever the bond, he will..."

With one swift motion, he plunges his fist into her heart, and she lets out a strangled cry, feeling the snaking tendrils inch across her body, everywhere, ensnaring her and dragging her down, into the darkness… with him.

"Take me down with him."

"It's good to see you use that brain of yours sometimes, ah," comments Maru, nodding approvingly. This time, Sakura throws her pack of snow at him, but he dodges. He always does. However, she feels emotionally and psychologically exhausted, so she doesn't bother finding something else to use as an impromptu weapon.

Putting her brain through the painful work of organising the information she knows and its implications has taken its toll. There are still too many questions that she can't answer, and may never be able to. After all, the only person who could give a proper response to the vast majority of them is hell-bent on destroying her.

"Is that why he did all of that?" she blurts out, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth. There is a knot in her throat, her heart skipping beats each time she focuses on the specifics of the situation.

"That is something only you might be able to understand, if you are truly the last one sharing a bond with him, ah."

"No. I can't think of anything else." Eyelids shut again, Sakura takes a deep breath. "I don't know why me, though. He killed Naruto - but not me. It's not like I could defend myself. I have read about many jutsu, too, and never in my life had I heard about Ningyo."

Think about it closely. There is something you are missing.

"Geez, why is everyone so cryptically useless?" she grumbles, rubbing her temples. The pain isn't ebbing at all, but there isn't much she can do. Her remedies didn't work on the headache. "I don't get it, Maru. I don't understand anything at all," Sakura protests, voicing one of the sentiments that has been bothering her for months.

So helpless. All this time, she has been dragged around by forces out of her control. And she doesn't like it one bit. Sakura might not be the sharpest kunai, but even she knows that her capabilities go beyond cowering at the slightest hint of either Sasuke or nightmares. And now, admittedly, she is growing tired of it.

The fact that she has regained control over her own mind is still, at best, a pyrrhic victory - it only opened more and more space for questions, for thinking and going over the things that torment her, over and over.

The answers are hidden somewhere in the fog of her mind, in between dark memories and faces she doesn't want to remember. Sasuke is the point that ties everything together - cause, reason, purpose and demise. He has always been in a special place of her heart, far or near… Tentatively, the pinkette opens and closes her fist, watching as the tendrils force her skin to stretch.

'I'm still a puppet. Wherever I go, his shadow is there,' she muses.

"If he is still with you, it must be because you don't want to let go, ah," the rat comments, and it takes a few moments for her to realise that he's talking about Naruto. The apparition grins when she finally looks at him in the eye, but she only frowns in response.

"You said there is more to my… visions than mere insanity," she says, convinced that the rat knows something that could help her immensely if he just told her. "I had a crow feather, didn't I? And you could hear it." This is one thing she hadn't thought about, her mind already drowning in a myriad of thoughts, each one threatening to finally break her.

The rat mutters something in a low voice, a word that sounds suspiciously like a curse, and shakes his tail from side to side. That look in his face is new: unmasked, true annoyance.

"That is true," he admits. "Don't tell me you haven't made the connection yet, because I can and will forcefully knock sense into that coconut head you have, ah."

A crow feather. The proof that there were some of these creatures when she stumbled her way to the cave - yet there was no trace of them afterward. Since then, the scattered pieces of their plumage has been part of nearly everything, as one of the layers of illusions that kept her from succumbing to insanity. A barrier, like the bells.

An illusion.

"Itachi!" she snaps, nearly jumping up to her feet. She regrets it the moment a wave of pain and nausea hits her like a boulder, her limbs trembling and burning under the spell of the tendrils.

Heaving, she coughs, a newfound stream of thoughts rushing through her mind. There's blood on her clothes, but she doesn't care. It makes so much damn sense that she feels dumb for not thinking about it earlier. But after all, how could she think of it? She didn't know Itachi - but she is aware of his proficiency with genjutsu.

"Weasel's a bastard even after he's dead, ah," the rat comments, disdain tainting every syllable like poison. What could he know about the Uchiha?

That voice. It had to be his. But she can't compare Itachi to people like Naruto or Ino. He was a stranger, someone she heard about and was strictly ordered to avoid by her superiors in Konoha. There is no reason for him to be part of her dreams now, especially because he was already dead when Sasuke lost his mind. She knows that much.

But how is he related to this whole debacle? There is no chance for him to have placed a jutsu on her, right? And even if that was the case, she can't see a reason for that. It makes no sense, none at all. There's a string she is missing here.

As if something in her mind had been waiting for this moment, a flash of memories springs to the front of her conscious thoughts.

She can feel it in the air… as if a storm is about to unleash. No, it has already started - thunder striking down people one by one, the air charged with the lingering remains of death and the promise of more. She knows, because there are screams of agony that she can't get out of her ears. She looks down, and everything is filled with blood, crimson rivulets that speak of calamity.

A massacre. And the perpetrator, the artist whose sword and hands are painting everything with red, stands not far away from her, body trembling, head cast low and back turned to her. A monster radiating an aura of pure hatred. She reaches out…

"The air was filled with life energy." Sakura forces herself to go back to the present, shutting down the need to curl into a ball and hold her legs tightly. Anything else feels unsafe. Yet her mind seems intent on recalling all the wild straws that she had missed before.

"Sometimes… when a lot of people die, or when they have really strong feelings… well, ah, they leave an imprint on the world. It's a mark of chakra, but usually it's too small for humans to feel it."

Maru's very own words replay in her head, and her eyes widen at the thought that he knew since the moment they met. Maybe even before that. Haunted places exist for a reason, don't they? Houses where entire families were murdered, temples that burnt down… battlefields, where humans die en masse, either suffering a quick death or after hours, even days of agony.

She was exposed to all of that for days, bereft of her own chakra and surrounded by nightmarish illusions, similar to the ones in Shimo. Maru could perceive them, and they could cause harm, and even alter their surroundings. Whatever they are, it can't be just her imagination. They exist outside her. They react to her.

Whatever these things are, they become agitated when she is present - at least, that is as much as she can gather from her many encounters with 'people' that shouldn't be there, to the point where she stopped being able to discern reality from illusion.

There must be a reason for their virulent hatred of her person. Until now, she wasn't even aware that these things existed, so why? Is it because she should be dead? Because they can sense Sasuke's energy, embedded into the seal that chains her chakra?

'Not all of them are evil,' she reminds herself. The most memorable of these encounters was… Ino. The Yamanaka stopped her from losing her mind during one of her breakdowns in Yu. She was tangible, if only for a brief second.

It's true that not all of these spirits, if she dares to call them so, are out to get her. In fact, most seemed content with just hanging around quietly. She remembers trying to ignore them with all of her might, because she didn't want a repeat of what happened when she first arrived to Yugakure.

What makes the difference? She has seen Naruto both as a supportive figure when she passed out (twice) and as one of the blurred out shapes that tried to kill her. The headache is only growing in intensity with every passing second, but she wants to understand. Sakura feels like she is so close to figuring out some key part of a big puzzle, that giving up now is just not an option.

"You know, the bastard is not the only one you have a bond with." For the first time, this imprint, or spirit, or whatever it is of Naruto speaks, and she finds her jaw coming loose, realisation hitting her like a ton of bricks, her eyes darting towards Naruto once more. It can't be…

But they were gone! Everything disappeared. Everyone. They can't just be back, it can't be that easy. They're dead for Kami's sake!

"Where did you go?" she mutters, finally addressing the blond shinobi. Her voice is on the edge of cracking, but there is an underlying tinge of anger that keeps her going. "Where the hell did you go?!"

A flare of pain surges in her head, the tendrils constricting and veiling the world around her with darkness. A primal instinct awakes in her, one she hadn't been aware of before… one that shouldn't be there.

Her eyes are trained on Naruto's, her body tense and ready to spring up to action. To fight, to kill if it's needed…

"I didn't go anywhere," he whispers, squatting down to be at the same level as she is. The way he speaks… he's holding something back. She knows. It isn't like him to talk like this.

"Don't coddle me," she grumbles, resting her head against the wall and blinking slowly, trying to flush away the pure, vile anger that pools inside her. "I'm not a little girl, Naruto."

He mutters something in a low voice, ruffling his hair and seeming conflicted, but finally he sighs. She merely watches him, appreciating the glimpse of his inner fire that his irises reflect. This is closer to the Naruto she knows, and not some washed out imitation.

"We made a deal, okay?" he explains, idly balancing himself on his sandals. "We couldn't tell you anything, because you had to learn to discern real from fake on your own. If we did… you might just get lost forever. To hell with that plan, it's not doing anything good," he adds, gritting his teeth.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura mumbles, feeling her muscles start to suffer from the constant strain. She might just pass out… but not yet, she won't let herself lose consciousness now.

"The stupid rat is saying the truth," he continues, pointing a derisive thumb towards the general location of Maru, though his eyes remain focused on hers. "When Sasuke-teme… sealed you, he didn't take into account that you were dying. The seal forced him to cram as much energy as he could into you. But he didn't have enough either - instead, the seal absorbed the energy that was lingering in the air. From all the people he just killed… like me."

He seems unfazed by the mention of his own death, but she winces at the thought. His was only the first of many…

"When people die, if their last wish or emotion is strong enough, they can leave a mark. But they need a vessel. And you were right there. Since your chakra is sealed within your body, all of that energy is still trapped within you," Naruto adds, pointing at her and frowning a little bit. "Your own soul… your mind, too - they're damaged. Your perception of reality is fucked up, and on top of that you have that extra life energy to deal with."

There is something in the glint of his eyes against the electric lights of the greenhouse - something fiery and determined. A light she has only seen in Naruto, when he lived.

"Sachi grabbed all of us and forced us to cooperate. There were even people that had nothing to do with you, can you believe it? Even some of the revived ones, like Itachi. As your deeper conscience, she could work while you were barely conscious. She ordered us, for your sake, to 'avoid intervention unless there was no other option, lest we drive you to complete insanity'. She wanted you to figure out things on your own, because relying on voices of your head is stupid," he snorts, shrugging. "To hell with that. You needed to know. I'm dead anyway, it's not like she can do more than get pissed at me."

Judging by the way he snickers, he had been waiting for a chance to rightfully piss off her inner voice for a while. Just what goes in the back of her mind when she isn't 'looking'?

"...That's it?" she mutters, dumbfounded. All along, the answers were right there? It can't be that easy. The mere thought is infuriating. Her own inner voice refused to tell her the truth - making her wonder if they are the same person at all. Great, like she needs a new issue to deal with.

Naruto nods, shrugging. It seems like there is not much else he has to add, but Sakura has spent way too much time lost in ruminations and dark thoughts - having the answer presented to her so effortlessly is shocking in its own way.

"There was no other way. That fat pile of rats tried to help, hell if I know why, but you weren't ready. You blocked everything out… and then Sasuke came barging in like the gigantic moron he is, and it got so bad that we thought you would never be able to deal with it. When you allowed yourself to meditate and relax, we took the chance. Got Itachi to hold you down a little and force you to listen, and bam! You got out of it on your own!" he grins, approval and glee radiating off his already bright features.

There really is something of the people she lost left. A mere imprint, a mark of what their souls used to be, but… she isn't alone. Sasuke's idea of putting this seal on her backfired horribly, at least for him. His intention of subjugating her will with chains made of literal darkness… failed.

But if this seal is his creation, if the chakra in her body is his… He didn't have enough energy, he was losing his mind.

"If he was so desperate, he might have overdone it. Perhaps a part of him slipped past… and now it's like I have a tiny part of his soul," she continues, eyes trained on the intricate, chaotic patterns of the black lines. "That's why it always…" she gulps, reminiscing something entirely unpleasant. "Why it always feels like he's right there. He never left."

Her heart skips a beat, goosebumps giving company to the shiver that runs down her spine. He never left. But is that true?

Shakily, she gets up to her feet, finding support on the wall. She refuses Misho's help. It hurts, the world spinning around her in a dizzying dance, but she refuses to go back down. And step by step, she approaches Naruto. Sakura spits blood, the metallic taste too familiar, though still unwelcome. Every centimeter of her feels strained, but she has to go on.

Her legs give out underneath her, causing her to fall over. But she never collides against the ground - Naruto's arms catch her before she hits, and lower her to the ground gently. Streams of sweat coat her forehead, her pink hair sticking to the skin unpleasantly. She looks up at those impossibly blue eyes, always full of energy and determination.

The world starts to fade into the darkness, as she tries to reach out, to confirm that he's there…

But it's too late. His image, the lights and the colors fade away, and she falls into an endless black pit, screaming, into a different person's embrace.

The scent of the sea reaches the pinkette's nostrils, a sudden slap that takes her out of her drowsy thoughts. The journey has been painful and tedious, and this is only another milestone in a road that seems to get more and more steep.

But it's an achievement nonetheless, and she takes a moment to close her eyes and breathe deeply. Her hair dances in the wind, the gelid breezes as unpleasant as ever. Compared to how dull her senses have gone over the last two days of travel, though, this is a very welcome change.

'Oi, if you are trying to pretend you're a lighthouse, you're doing it wrong.'

Sighing, Sakura turns around to ensure none of her companions have gotten somehow lost. She learned about Misho's proficiency regarding disappearing the hard way. Even with Maru on the boy's shoulder and a rope to tie the kid to her, the past days have been a nightmare. She has no clue how he does it, but it has become a source of annoyance instead of worry due to how often it happens.

And the fact that her nagging inner self has decided to come back to life doesn't help in the slightest. Now she has not only one, but two sassy jerks to deal with. Thankfully, the rat isn't able to communicate with Sachi, because then she would be deep in trouble.

"Why did you come back again?" she grumbles, relieved to see the poor boy barely managing to drag himself through the snow, towards her. Even though he follows her tracks, physical exercises don't seem to be his forte. All she could do for him, even though her body wasn't exactly ready to be strained, was take the part of the supplies he carried.

The last time she tried teaching him how to use a jutsu to make small sphere of fire to warm himself up with, a new coat was needed. And god forbid him from attempting to use chakra control to keep himself warm - carrying his unconscious body through the desolate Frost until she found something close to shelter wasn't fun.

Maru doesn't help either. He sits around, makes witty comments, pisses off Sachi and Sakura and is mostly a pain in the ass. As her inner voice pointed out, with such competent companions it would be a miracle they made it to Engetsu. But here they are, finally next to the sea, which is still unfrozen due to the proximity to the village.

Apparently, these people figured out how to keep the water melted… probably because they had ancestors from the Land of Hot Water. Even though there is probably no one else left, the waves keep drawing lines of seafoam on the surface of the water, rushing toward the shoreline, regardless of the chilling cold that envelops the world.

'To protect you from the baddies, duh,' replies her inner voice, dragging her out of her thoughts with her nonchalant response. Despite her mocking tone, Sakura knows she is saying the truth.

Sachi has been her lifeline in the past days - it's usually well-advised to avoid talking to voices in your head, but in this case, it was a choice between her and the others. While not as aggressive as they were in the past, the withered remains of the dead have come back to the surface of reality, and in a place that was torn by war, they react extremely badly to her presence.

Misho catches up, and Sakura basically forces him to stop and rest, regardless of his protests. Sitting against a rock, she watches the eerily peaceful landscape of the coastline. In the distance, she can make the outlines of Engetsu's buildings, and a few docks that have seen better times.

"To be honest, I don't know where to go from here," she admits, to no one in particular.

'Cheer up - now you know you're not completely crazy!' chirps her inner voice, giving her the most fake thumbs up she has ever seen. Well, as much as she can see that.

Sighing, she feels the weight of Maru as he jumps on her shoulder and examines the landscape. She gives him a side glance, a sudden thought coming to her mind.

"Thank you."

His reply is as scornful as she would expect it to be - he doesn't even bother to give her a side glance.

"Sod off and pat your own back."

A.N.: As I type this, it's almost 10am. I started writing the biggest chunk of this (after many re-writings throughout the last two weeks) at 6pm, and I honestly hope I didn't fuck up horribly by leaving some chunk of beta text in there, despite my proof-reading/spell-checking (thankfully I re-read chapters from time to time, so if there is something that I messed up, I'll fix it... eventually). I honestly wish I had been able to do this before, but turns out that I had to become an impromptu navigator to avoid getting lost in obscure Spanish roads... so I didn't have time to finish this chapter, lol. Plus, it was a big bitch to write, to put it bluntly.

We near the end of the second arc out of five - aka the arc where 'Sakura gets her shit together and we get to stalk Sasuke's private life'. Tune in next Saturday for more creepy updates and answers that only make you question more things! *Insert holy crap nearly 100 reviews and all that jazz*. If this chapter was a tad too confusing, if I messed up and you feel the need to flame - constructive criticism is very damn welcome and appreciated. Same for all the support for all the cool things and support you show everytime (thank you so damn much, seriously).

Okay, I think this author note made up for 2 weeks of not hearing a word from me. Stay classy!

Cheerps,

Blu.